Review ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Category – Contemporary, Music, Enemies to Lovers, Second Chance

A second change romance between a 27-year-old photographer heroine and a 30-year-old songwriter hero. Themes of addiction, music, abandonment, single parenthood, second chances, enemies to lovers, fate and deceit are found in this book. It is a fairly angsty read with a happy ending.


Angst - 4
Main Character Development - 4
Secondary Character Development - 3
Banter - 3
Sexual Heat -

Rory committed 8 years ago to drop everything for this person she met when she was different after a 24-hour tryst in Ireland. Malachy took her heart years ago. Callum, her current boyfriend, is sweet, but it isn’t Mal from 8 years ago. They meet on the balcony of a dinner she was having at a hotel in New York. This book so for a mature audience. The author is very blunt about her sensitive topics. This book also time jumps a lot from current to past and back again. Mal is a jerk now, and she has to be in his presence for 2 months while she works on her photography job. He is now a songwriter but announces he married her cousin. This book gets all kinda thirsted, and by midway through the books, we still don’t have all the answers. The author has a weird letter from the other characters in the chapters. But this book has so many truths to reveal still. Not sure where the romance is going to go. This book is a total surprise at the end.

I love how the author wove this perfect romance story, even referencing movies. Yes, this story has gaps that trick the reader into thinking the romance won’t work out but reading it, in the end, is worth it. I love how the author brought truths to light at the right time instead of randomly in the book. I hated the surprise letters in between some chapters from other characters in the book. This was an epic, unforgettable love story.

This book disappointed me. I disliked Mal and Aurora annoyed me. There were many things I did not like in the plot: cheating, rape and how it was handled, the big "secret" and the reason why everyone hated Rory in the village. This was the first time and the last time I read anything by this author.

DNF

Couldn’t get through it. The writing style is so clunky and the dialogue seems forced. The accents, don’t even get me started. The metaphors are so heavy handed and the narrator is too petulant to relate to. I wanted to like it, the concept seems amazing, this was just not the one for me.

This is unlike any LJ Shen book I've read before! These two characters have longed and hated each other for over eight years. They sealed their fates at 18 in a grand romantic gesture and thought they would never see each other again. A lot of suspense and half-truths fill these two people's lives. Only the truth will set them free!
If any type or concept of cheating bothers you, then skip this read. It's emotional, sexy, infuriating, loving, and beautiful! I loved it!!
This one has restored my faith in LJ after Broken Knight...which I just could not do!

Loved it!!

This was the first book by this author I've read. I had no idea what to expect. So many emotions, twists, POVs of inanimate objects

When I first read The Kiss Thief, I went crazy and bought a bunch of LJ Shen paperbacks, without knowing if I would enjoy them. So going into this one I had a lot of high hopes that were ultimately met.

In the Unlikely Event tells the story in the present and past, through both Rory and Mal’s perspectives. Most of the book takes place in the present. In the past, they met and after a whirlwind time with one another, they promised to get married if they ever met again, no matter what, or who, was in their lives at the time. Jump forward 8 years, and there Mal is again, in front of her. Only at first he wants revenge for some unknown reason and she is happily dating and wants nothing more to do with them. The more time they spend with one another, the more their pasts and present breaks down. Mal is hiding something and Rory pretends she is truly happy.

There’s an underlying mystery surrounding Rory with this book, something that only she doesn’t know. Top that with Mal’s secret and how everything else seems to happen for a reason. What I liked most about this book was how important every character was. No one was inconsequential, and in the end, everyone was given a voice. Her little “Notes from...:” was often funny, but also super interesting. Like I said, random girl with Mal...She gets her time to talk and explain her story. So with everyone’s mini stories, it builds to be a great book with lots of background from each character.

The sex is hot. The romance is cute. Exactly what you’d expect from this book. A little bit of angst and a whole lot of humor. In the end, this is a great feel-good book for when you want an actual story with it as well.

Malachy is tailor-made for a huge, colossal heartbreak.

I'm struggling writing my review. Because this book split my heart and soul in half. I really loved and enjoyed the first part of the book. It was heaven. But the story took some twists and turns I'm not OK with. And that makes it hard to rate and review it.

There are many things that feel wrong to me, yet I still enjoyed reading this book much more than I probably should have.

This guy can move me without touching me, and touch me without laying a finger on me.

In The Unlikely Event is something different to LJ Shen's other books. It has a unique approach on how to spin off the first encounter, the first fast falling. It was promising, taunting and captivating until it wasn't. It held so much potential and I came out a little disappointed at the end.

Nevertheless, LJ Shen again shows off her skill in writing enemies to lovers/second chance romance. Even after what feels like the millionste book of this trope, she's still able to captivate the reader.

It's not fate; it's us. From start to finish. Twisted, screwed, obsessed, destructive, wonderful us.

Beautiful!

I don’t know what words to use to explain this story. Map and Rory have the most amazing, twisted, and beautiful fairytale. If you’re on the fence about reading this book, let me tell you, take the plunge!!

THIS BOOK. This book right here got me so up in my feels. To me, this book was so different from anything I've read from LJ Shen! Sooooo good. She switched things up. She wrote a book that made me so emotional. I fell in love with Mal so quick. Like, from the get go. And that's saying something cause I thought Trent would be my guy forever but Mal stole that top spot! So charismatic. So flirty. So fun. Rory is great! I love the chemistry she had with Mal from the moment she met him. Fate has a funny way of doing things sometimes, I truly believe that and they knew it too. Like, how can you know in 24 hours if someone is the love of your life? Fate knows sometimes, even when we don't. This book had me hating some people and rooting for others and then BAM! I was rooting for those people I kinda hated and hating the people I had been rooting for. Isn't that crazy?! Not really cause that's LJ for you. The fact that she has points of view from Mal, Rory, a cow, a chocolate bar, a napkin, family, and friends made this such a cool book. I love being able to hear from other characters in a story and this was a fun and neat way of doing that. I mean seriously, we heard from a FREAKING CHOCOLATE BAR. Does it get any weirder than that? But it's the best kind of weird. Leigh is a word wizard and she went way over the bar with this book. She said this book was her dancing in the rain. If that's true, then I always wanna dance in the rain with her. She's so good at forming her characters and I truly did love this book, no matter how different it was. Mal and Rory knocked it out of the park for me. I fell in love with both of them. I would 100% recommend this book to anyone!